


Gone to soldiers

by Redrocketeer



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Ending, Empty Chairs at Empty Tables, Gen, Grief, I'm Sorry, Sad, Spoilers!, Things that happen at the end, brothers in arms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-20
Updated: 2017-03-20
Packaged: 2018-10-08 06:10:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10380204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redrocketeer/pseuds/Redrocketeer
Summary: What if Noctis survived but not his brothers?





	

**Author's Note:**

> So I took a break from writing cheerful smut to wallow in some more sadness. Thanks game...

**Prologue**

Noctis took a breath.

It wasn’t his first but it seemed to come only seconds after his last.

He’d looked down, pinned, with a victor’s smile and embraced the end. This beginning, this was harder to accept. He was alone in the citadel, in the place he used to know like the back of his hand. He stared at his hands now, unmarked and whole. He placed one to his chest and found it solid and warm.

Was his continued existence a boon? A reward? Did it come with a price or another impossible task to be funnelled towards? There was no one to tell him that, to announce terms or pat him on the back. There was no one to boast about their generosity or their power in restoring the rightful King to life.

Noctis stood just outside the throne room and found he was in no hurry to re-enter it. He turned to the South, to where his brothers waited. Maybe he would find his answers there.

When he pushed open the heavy doors the first thing he saw was the sun.

**The Sun**

The light was gentle on the top step, casting its orange and bronzes over dirty gold hair, fluttering in the wind like a downed flag. Fresh blood pasted it together in a wild tangle. It must have gotten messed up in the fight, Noctis thought as he sat beside his friend. Prompto was a whirlwind of evidence of action. His fingers were stretched towards his gun, his clothes were tousled and loose. His face was turned away from the palace door, closest to his King. He was still now.

Noctis touched Prompto’s cooling face, where his freckles had faded from years in the dark, but they were still there, running across his nose like excited ants on their way to a picnic. Noctis remembered the first time he’d noticed them, while sitting in a milkbar on the third day of school. He’d noticed they stretched and shifted when Prompto smiled. A mark from the sun for one of its children. He thought they suited his friend immensely. 

“Prompto, no,” he said gently, stroking the mess of Prompto’s hair. As he pulled his fingers away they were numb. The one who had always lifted him when the weight was too heavy, the one who could find something to smile at in almost any situation, was gone. 

“I’m so sorry.”

The king pressed his lips to the forehead of his dearest friend. _“My Prompto. My brother.”_ He took him in his arms and didn’t let go for some time. There was no need to hurry now.

_How? How am I going to smile again without you?_

**The moon**

Noctis knew from the silence what he would find as he walked down the stairs. 

The matching garb didn’t fool him, he knew the shape of his friends. Gladiolus lay on his back, facing out, as Noctis know he would be. A heavy arm lay behind him, sword in hand, trapped he could never let it go on his own. His body was a mess of cuts and punctures, blood on his clothes showed he’d fought through all but the last. Noctis needed no proof of that either.

The king sat beside his knight, carding his fingers through long, dark hair. “You were right. You were always right.” Brave. Wise. Things he’d barely noticed when his shield was alive, things that had seemed an irritation. He hadn’t wanted _insight._ He’d wanted a way out. Of all of them Gladio was the one who could have thrived anywhere but he’d been dealt a different hand. Noctis felt sick as he took in the still features, remembering how they moved only hours before.

His kiss was too late but a kiss goodbye always felt so.

“My Gladio. My brother.”

_How?? How am I going to face what’s in the dark without you?_

**The stars**

Noctis gentled Ignis’ glasses off his face and met no resistance. As always, one eye was shut, one open. Noctis brushed the right closed for his own benefit. Ignis lay on his side, his daggers to hand but, now, discarded. His wounds were hidden beneath his heavy coat but blood touched the steps where he lay below his brothers, almost to the square, as if he was caught out making a final dash.

The king stared into his friend’s face and remembered the first time they’d met. The shy child, sticking close to his uncle’s leg until Noctis had taken his hand and drawn him into a game. “My first friend,” the king said fondly, brushing Ignis’ hair back from his face. He was dry of tears, his head ached horribly, but it was nothing. This one had given him everything. He’d given up his hopes, his dreams, almost every waking hour. The king didn’t feel worth a second of it.

His kiss was fond and lingered here, too, on a forehead yet too smooth.

“My Ignis. My brother.”

_How??? How am I going to find my way without you?_

**Epilogue**

Prompto was the easiest to move. The only fitting place was the little patch of grass outside his father’s study. They’d wait there. Ignis was heavier than he looked, Gladio was not, but the King didn’t care. It was more than his duty. He lay them together under the rising sun they had paid for. He sat amongst them, as he’d done for most of his life, and rested hands where he could, on a collar, against a cheek. He swallowed.

“Whoever did this! Whatever brought me back! You did it for a reason! You need me to do something! Well, I can’t do it alone. I can’t do it without them! So bring them back. Bring them back too.”

He forced every scrap of energy he had into the words, sent them far as he could reach. It wasn’t enough to stop his voice cracking. 

He waited but only the breeze stirred, ruffling their hair like an old friend. 

It wasn't enough.


End file.
